River Road by Jayne Ann Krentz

It’s been thirteen years since Lucy Sheridan was in Summer River. The last time she visited her aunt Sara there, as a teenager, she’d been sent home suddenly after being dragged out of a wild party—by the guy she had a crush on, just to make it more embarrassing. Obviously Mason Fletcher—only a few years older but somehow a lot more of a grown-up—was the overprotective type who thought he had to come to her rescue.

Now, returning after her aunt’s fatal car accident, Lucy is learning there was more to the story than she realized at the time. Mason had saved her from a very nasty crime that night—and soon afterward, Tristan, the cold-blooded rich kid who’d targeted her, disappeared mysteriously, his body never found.

A lot has changed in thirteen years. Lucy now works for a private investigation firm as a forensic genealogist, while Mason has quit the police force to run a successful security firm with his brother—though he still knows his way around a wrench when he fills in at his uncle’s local hardware store. Even Summer River has changed, from a sleepy farm town into a trendy upscale spot in California’s wine country. But Mason is still a protector at heart, a serious (and seriously attractive) man. And when he and Lucy make a shocking discovery inside Sara’s house, and some of Tristan’s old friends start acting suspicious, Mason’s quietly fierce instincts kick into gear. He saved Lucy once, and he’ll save her again. But this time, she insists on playing a role in her own rescue . . . 
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I gotta give it to Ms. Krentz - somehow she manages to make her contemporary romances work for me, time and time again. River Road is a great example of how two smart people can get lost in an emotional mind field, especially when there is danger and intrigue to fog the path. Lucy and Mason might have an idea of what they're getting themselves into, investigating her aunts death and how exactly a body ended up in her fireplace, but there are so many players to consider that the obvious answer is rarely the right one. 

It results in a very interesting story, as Lucy and Mason have other needs to balance than the ones to urging them to heat up the sheets. Which they do. And it's great, lol. I like reading a mystery where the big bad isn't totally obvious, and despite a bit of character placement which indicated that a particular person might be more than they appear, Krentz does a great job weaving a complicated plot. 

Plus there's a great little scene from her next book, Otherwise Engaged, at the end!

Overall Feeling - A-

Series - None